Re: Install on new M.B.> other possible hazards.

On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:55:24 +0100, Aragorn wrote:
> kid wrote:
>
>> I Installed a motherboard (M2N32-SLI DELUXE ) on my
>> computer. I have tried installing suse 10.2 and 10.3. The result is
>> the kernel loads...then nothing.
>
> Please define "nothing"? Does the boot process halt or does the screen go
> blank?
>
>>
> Hard disks normally do not and never should require any special drivers.
> Hard disk controllers on the other hand may require drivers, but a quick
> Google search on the board you mentioned tells me that it uses an nVidia
> nForce chipset, and those are supported by the stock Linux kernel.
>
>>
>
> Please be more clear about the trouble you experience, and try to be as
> verbatim as possible regarding error messages etc.
>
> In addition, many people still download ./iso/ images and burn them to a
> CD/DVD without check the /md5sums/ on the file first in order to verify
> that the file didn't get corrupted on the way down from the internet onto
> their computers. One defective bit may make a huge difference, and it may
> even be a difference that only shows up quite late, such as late in the
> install procedure or in post-install set-ups. Additionally, one should use
> quality storage media and use a low speed for burning, so as to exclude any
> other possible hazards.
>
> Hope this was helpful... ;-)
>
The boot process stops and there is a blank screen. There are no
messages. And I checked the md5sum when I burned the 10.2 disk. The
10.3 disk is factory (Novell).

I believe the problem is the driver for the sata controller.
The sata controller comes from silicon image 3132. There are no linux
drivers on the asus site.

Re: Install on new M.B.> other possible hazards.

kid wrote:
> The boot process stops and there is a blank screen.

The screen going blank is not a natural occurrence as a system freeze would
still leave the previous kernel messages on the screen. So most likely
there is a problem with the initializing of a framebuffer for video output.
> There are no messages. And I checked the md5sum when I burned the 10.2
> disk. The 10.3 disk is factory (Novell).

Okay, that's good.
> I believe the problem is the driver for the sata controller.
> The sata controller comes from silicon image 3132. There are no linux
> drivers on the asus site.

Google is your friend. Entering "Silicon Image 3132 SATA" in the search
field immediately yielded the Silicon Image website link at the top of the
page - rendered in 0.21 seconds - with the page of this particular SATA
controller. From there I clicked the "Driver" link, which led me to
this...:

I don't know whether your distribution is 32-bit or 64-bit, so I couldn't
make the selection for you on that above website, but you should be able to
find drivers there, probably along with the instructions on how to install
them during the installation phase of your operating system.

I'm not sure but I believe SuSE does offer you an option to load a driver
diskette during system installation - I've used OpenSUSE on a few of our
machines and I seem to remember mention of such an option in Adaptec's
documentation regarding SCSI controllers, but I've never actually installed
SuSE myself.

As a sidenote, I am not sure as I don't use this controller but chances are
that if the driver is downloadable from the manufacturers website, it will
most likely already be featured in the most recent kernels and licensed
under the GPL. If this is the case, then it's very likely that the kernel
of your SuSE versions already comes with the same driver compiled as a
module, and then there may be another reason as to why this driver doesn't
get loaded in your distribution(s). But then again, I'm just guessing
here, as it's your computer and only you would know what it does and does
not do. ;-)

Anyway, hopefully this helps... :-)

--
Aragorn
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

Re: Install on new M.B.> other possible hazards.

I demand that Aragorn may or may not have written...
> kid wrote:
>> The boot process stops and there is a blank screen.
> The screen going blank is not a natural occurrence as a system freeze would
> still leave the previous kernel messages on the screen. So most likely
> there is a problem with the initializing of a framebuffer for video output.

There was a kernel bug (fixed last year) in radeonfb which caused a blank
display with my X300.

[snip]
>> I believe the problem is the driver for the sata controller. The sata
>> controller comes from silicon image 3132. There are no linux drivers on
>> the asus site.
> Google is your friend. Entering "Silicon Image 3132 SATA" in the search
> field immediately yielded the Silicon Image website link at the top of the
> page - rendered in 0.21 seconds - with the page of this particular SATA
> controller. From there I clicked the "Driver" link, which led me to
> this...:
> http://www.siliconimage.com/support/...?pid=32&cid=3&

http://hardware4linux.info/ (which, AFAICS, is currently either down or
unreachable, so I've gone via Google cache) says that the driver which is
needed is "sata_sil24".